I still feel abiding affection for Jesus

[sophiaserpentia]

...but i'd rather see Christianity eradicated entirely than watch it continue to be hijacked in the name of bigotry, greed, and sexism:

The Northern Marianas Islands are a U.S. protectorate (so it can label goods "Made in the USA") in the Pacific being used as a sort of labor gulag, with workers imported from China and elsewhere and paid pitiful wages. Jack Abramoff had a contract with the government of the Marianas to lobby against stopping the flow of immigrant labor to the islands and to prevent a minimum wage bill (mandating a level higher than the island's standard $3.05 per hour) from getting to the floor of the House.

The islands are home to classic sweatshops. In 1996 and 1997, Abramoff billed the Marianas for 187 contacts with DeLay's office, including 16 meetings with DeLay. In December 1997, DeLay, his wife and their daughter went on an Abramoff-arranged jaunt to the Marianas. DeLay brunched with the Marianas' largest private employer, textile magnate Willie Tan.

Tan had to settle a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit alleging workplace violations. According to the book "The Hammer" by Lou Dubose and Jan Reid, among the violations common on the islands is forbidding women to work when they are pregnant, thus leading to a high abortion rate.

Evidently, DeLay didn't have time to look into such allegations, since he was busy playing golf and attending a dinner in his honor, sponsored by Tan's holding company. According to The Washington Post, it was at this dinner that DeLay called Abramoff "one of my closest and dearest friends." He also reminded those present of his promise that no minimum wage or immigration legislation affecting the Marianas would be passed.

"Stand firm," he added. "Resist evil. Remember that all truth and blessings emanate from our Creator." He then went with Tan to see a cockfight.

This is why DeLay's professions of Christianity make me sick. He was there. He could have talked to the workers. Instead, he chose to walk with the powerful and do real harm to the very people Jesus mandated we especially care for.

from Molly Ivins: DeLay's sins

Speaking of Tom DeLay's profession of being a Christian, let's see some notes from a conference he attended recently in DC, alongside Senator John Cornyn, Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes, Phyllis Schafly, and others:

Beginning with the premise that there is a war on Christianity, conference organizers and participants were eager to issue calls to arms in response. “We are under spiritual invasion!” intoned Rod Parsley, an evangelist from Ohio. “Man your battle stations! Ready your weapons! LOCK AND LOAD!” (The audience responded to these imperatives with a raucous and exuberant standing ovation.) Parsley also claimed that those Christian churches not sharing the perspective of the Christians represented at the conference constitute “the devil’s demilitarized zone,” naïvely and fatally embracing “peace at any price.” Meanwhile, Laurence Wright, a Lutheran pastor and co-president of Vision America, announced that the time of a peaceful and contemplative Christianity is over; that Christians have been AWOL (“absent without Lord”) in the battle; and that “We must attack the evil now where it is strongest” in order to restore America, the city high on a hill.

... Perhaps the most explicit call to arms came from Ron Luce, the president and founder of Teen Mania, a Christian revivalist youth ministry, and the author of Battle Cry for a Generation, a multimedia campaign that deploys military images and language to recruit soldiers in Christ’s army. Toward the end of his speech, Luce invoked the biblical story of the Levite’s concubine in Judges 19. (In the story, the Levite’s concubine is gang-raped by men who wanted to do sexual violence to the Levite. When the Levite’s host refuses to deliver the Levite to the assailants, he offers them his own virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine instead. When the assailants reject such an exchange, the Levite simply expels the concubine from his host's house, leaving her to be raped repeatedly throughout the night. The following morning, upon finding the concubine’s dead body on his host’s doorstep, the Levite dismembers her and sends her body parts out to the twelve tribes of Israel as a provocation to revenge.) “I kind of feel like the Levite,” Ron Luce confessed. And then he uttered a battle cry of his own: “CUT UP THE CONCUBINE! CUT UP THE CONCUBINE! CUT UP THE CONCUBINE!”

from Notes from the War Room (thanks to _raven_ for the link)

Comments

[alobar.livejournal.com]

Expression of such vile hatred in the name of religion aught to be grounds for taking away the group's non profit status, and also be grounds for criminal investigation of the persons making such statements looking into possible child &/or spousal abuse.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

I try not to hold Jesus' followers against him, but it sure is hard not to do so.

[dandycat.livejournal.com]

This just makes me want to weep.

[brontosproximo.livejournal.com]

*shudders*

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

The more they talk about being persecuted, the more I want to organize a revival for them, so they can fully understand persecution. I think some lions would do the trick. At least the show would be fun to watch.

[idunn.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my father, the year after I started college. In response to hearing about gay marriage, my father said it would set a bad precedent because then "everyone would think it's okay to be gay/Black/White/whatever", to which I responded, "Dad, people are BORN gay/Black/White/whatever".

"But homosexuality is condemned in the Bible, and we should follow the Bible," he said, because everything would be better if we followed God's word to the letter.

I reminded him that if he really wanted to go that route, the Bible also advocates genocide and stoning of adulterers. Point being, it's a brutal bit of writing and has no place as a code of law in a just government.

I swear to God this is an honest question, not sarcasm

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

I read your LJ from time to time because you're on my friendsfriends view. I often hear you say that you want liberal Christians to stand up and resist fundamentalist, Dominionist versions of Christianity, to demonstrate that there is more to the religion than obsessing about certain passages in the Scriptures that seem to pertain to same-sex relations. My question to you is: How shall we do this? That is, how can the average lay Christian, someone who is not a priest/minister, not a religious educator, not a vestry member, resist fundamentalist definitions of their religion? Obviously, if someone in one's social circle--family, friend, coworker--happens to be a fundamentalist, one can respond to that instead of "politely" ignoring it. But what if no one in one's social circle is spewing hatred? What do you want liberal Christian to do to show that they are on the side of love and compassion and justice?